1) By birth; 2) As a result of being granted citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic; 3) As a result of having citizenship restored; 4) Grounded in, or under a procedure established by, an interstate agreement that has come into force. We will consider to what extent each of these accords with the provisions of the 1961 Convention. In Article 12 of the Law On Citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic two grounds for acquiring citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic are considered: by birth or by descent. There are two principles that form the grounds for acquiring citizenship by birth: 1. Citizenship by the principle of jus soli means that a child becomes a citizen of the state in which she was born. The citizenship of the parents is irrelevant. The principle of jus solis, which is also known as the territorial principle, is usually applied in Latin American countries, including Argentina. Therefore, for example, a child born to citizens of Kyrgyzstan in Argentina at the same time as acquiring Kyrgyz citizenship also acquires Argentinean citizenship (in this way becomes a dual citizen), while at the same time a child born to citizens of Argentina abroad – that is, outside the territory of Argentina, is recognised as a foreigner. At the same time, it should be noted that the jus solis principle in its pure form is not applied anywhere. 2. Citizenship by the principle of jus sanguinis – here the child acquires citizenship from the parents independent of the place of birth. There are two understandings of jus sanguinis. The first of these is based on the principle of “family unity”, through a maleheaded household. The logic is that if parents have different nationalities, the child takes the nationality of the father, and only children born outside marriage acquire the mother’s nationality. The second understanding is based on the equal rights of the parents, and this way a child with parents of different nationalities acquires the nationality of the father or the mother. The second principle has gradually become the dominant principle in nationality laws worldwide with the growing recognition of the principle of gender equality. However, in realising the principle of jus sanguinis certain difficulties can arise, which are resolved in different ways in the nationality legislation of different states. In particular, this relates to cases where the child’s parents are citizens of different countries. The principles of jus sanguinis and jus solis are both found in the legislation of many States, including that of the Kyrgyz Republic. Thus, Article 12, Point 1 of the Law On Citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic establishes general rules for acquiring citizenship on the basis of jus sanguinis – that is, a child is a citizen of the Kyrgyz Republic if at the time of birth his/her parents were citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic, independent of his or her place of birth. Article 12, Point 2 of the Law On Citizenship of the Kyrgyz Republic establishes that if the parents have different citizenships, if one of them is a citizen of the Kyrgyz Republic, the citizenship of the child, independent of place of birth, is defined by written agreement of the parents. This provision of the Law in general is consistent with the requirements of Articles 1 and 4 of the 1961 Convention, that a Contracting State shall grant its nationality to a person born in its territory or abroad if at the time of the person’s birth one of the person’s parents was a citizen of the Contracting State, if the person would otherwise be stateless. However, the provision of the Article of the Law, which leaves the parents to determine the nationality of the child, is not quite appropriate. The parents may not agree and the process Small Changes ‫ ـ‬Big Gains: An Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic 28